Story 'What If... Iron Man Lost the Civil War?'

We return to the regular world complete with non-stop rain. Tony and the
stranger are still standing outside the tomb of Captain America.

Staring down at the ground, Tony attempts to verify the meaning of his tale:
he was right in doing what he did. The stranger does not answer. Tony
continues: it was better to comply and try to control the "beast" from within
rather than let it destroy everything they've ever accomplished. He asks the
stranger why Steve couldn't see that.

The stranger replies that Rogers was never pragmatic; he was never
comfortable with the concept of "the lesser of two evils". Tony counters that
this is not necessarily "evil". The stranger agrees and then begins to show him
another dimension with another outcome.

In this world, Iron Man and Captain America meet on the field of battle with
their troops behind them. It's a meeting of opposing generals. Tony realizes
that this is the last opportunity he had to reach a compromise with Cap's
resistance movement. Similar to his reality, Cap arrived prepared. In his
glove, he had a small device capable of shorting out his armor.

Tony's speech unfolds in the same manner. However at the critical point,
this version of Tony does something different: he's completely honest with his
friend. He states that while he does believe his way is right, he needs someone
he trusts to ensure he's doing this the right way. He needs Captain America
watching his back. At this point Cap forgoes using the device and simply
replies "Let's talk".

S.H.I.E.L.D is observing this meeting with their satellites. Their senors
pick up the device in Cap's glove. An overeager agent prematurely releases one
of the Thor clones to "save" Iron Man. He realizes his error too late to stop
the pseudo-god from descending to the battlefield.

Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic recognize the clone immediately and attempt to
shut it down. This does not go as planed. The clone hits Reed with a lightning
bolt, rendering him unconscious. Similar to Tony's reality, the clone turns his
attention to Goliath and prepares a charge for him. Unlike in Tony's world,
this Iron Man flies in front of Goliath, taking the brunt of the blast himself.
With his armor's systems off-line, Tony is unable to deactivate the clone.

As the Thor clone brings his hammer down on a defenseless Iron Man, Cap steps
in and allows his shield to absorb the impact. He tells the clone that to get
to Iron Man, [the clone] will have to go through him. At this point all the
heroes converge on the Thor clone and destroy it.

Later at Stark Towers, Tony and Steve attempt to work out their differences.
Their opinions of the issue have not changed, but at least they are talking
them out. Steve states flatly that no government can be trusted to properly use
that level of power. In a flash of brilliance, Tony responds, "but you can".

Tony points out the the basis for their disagreement is not the philosophy
behind the act; its the direct involvement of the government. He convinces
Steve that they – as Avengers – should train the heroes in the responsible use
of their powers. They would work with the government to ensure compliance, but
the knowledge of their secret identities would be known only to him. Over
Steve's protests, Tony reminds him that he's the only person that everyone would
trust. This would end the fighting once and for all. He reminds Steve that he
can't simply be against something, he has to be for something better.
With that Steve agrees to Tony's plan.

To ensure that the government agrees with their decision, Tony stages a press
conference to announce their intentions to the world. The people cheer; the
leaders are aghast. Despite the President's reluctance, he has little choice
but to go along with them.

In this reality, this works better than they could have dreamed.

At this point the stranger ends his tale. Tony is struck to the core over
this revelation. The simplest of actions could have prevented this tragedy and
brought about a veritable utopia. Tony asks the stranger why he's shown him this.

He states that despite his ability to see all possibilities, Tony can do
something that he can't: cause ripples.

"But you can't control a ripple", Tony replies.

"No", the stranger responds, "And that is what life is, Tony Stark. Cherish
it. Because some of us only wait ... and watch".

General Comments

The title is slightly misleading. Iron Man didn't "lose" the war, they came up
with an alternative that works.

This alternate Earth's ending to the Civil War was both uplifting and a bit
cheesy. It's nice to see that the heroes can get along, but the final page felt
a bit like a Normal Rockwell painting. I fully expected one of them to say
"Gee, Steve/Tony, you're my best friend. I'm glad we're not fighting anymore".

That subjective item aside, this is a plausible ending to the Civil War
series. I'm a firm believer in consequences for your actions. However, seeing
some of the undesirable repercussions from that series, I'm rethinking my
opinion. Captain America is dead. Spider-Man is quasi-divorced courtesy of an
evil enigmatic individual (insert your joke here). Known supervillains are now
government operatives. Is this Marvel's answer to DC's Suicide Squad? I don't
know.

I think I would have preferred a powderpuff ending to the series if we could
have avoided two of the three changes in the status quo. Guess which ones.

Overall Rating

3.5 webs. This story is good in it's own right. Unfortunately falls a bit
short of its sibling. I think the final Tony/Steve sequence went too far.
There was a great two page spread of all the heroes that gave the general
impression that while the task ahead of them was difficult, the heroes made it
work. That should have been the end.

Footnote

Iron Man and Captain America had their last chance meeting in Civil War #3